Lifelong Adventure
by piccolabimba
Summary: Caroline Quiner Ingalls always knew that marrying Charles Ingalls would be an adventure to last a lifetime.
1. Girlish Joys

Girlish Joys

She loved to dance.

The music got her foot tapping and her eyes searching for a partner. Her beau, however, was usually the one making the music, playing one bright song after the other while the couples swirled.

She caught a glance and wink from him as he started in on "Buffalo Gals" and then there was Henry ready to whisk her away in a high stepping trot. Her brother always was one for dancing.

She twirled with her brothers and his before someone else picked up the fiddle and his arms were around her waist, pulling her along with his twinkling blue eyes and quick step. Meanwhile, the snow blew outside in the wintery Wisconsin night.

A quick kiss on her cheek that made her blush (_Really _Charlie, we're in _public_) and he was back to his fiddle, closing out the evening singing "In the Starlight", casting glances at her as he sang.

It was one of those times that Caroline knew marrying Charles Ingalls would be an adventure to last a lifetime.


	2. Pioneer Woman

Pioneer Woman

References to Little House in the Big Woods

She was afraid. There was a bear in the cow pen and Laura was right there.

After sending her little girl on her way, she slowly turned and then dashed back to the house, sweeping up her daughter as she passed. Once in the house, she caught her breath and faced the little scared faces full of questions.

After soothing their fears for the cow and horses, she tucked in her two eldest, latched the door, and picked up the baby for comfort. Charles would rather the door be locked and them safe than for her to leave it open and go to bed in danger. She settled in the rocker and watched the fire late into the night, waiting for his well-known knock on the door, telling her he was safely home.


	3. Midnight Musings

Midnight Musings

It was nights like these that she wondered how things had gone the way they had. Lying in the wagon, in the makeshift bed he had made for them. The girls sleeping wind and the stars just outside the canopy of the wagon top.

How did they end up in this place? Was it futile, the way they drifted from place to place? What was the purpose? Was there a good reason? Where would they finally stop? Where would Charles be satisfied? What was he looking for?

She turned to look at his sleeping face, the moonlight showing just the outline of his features. She had known long ago how he craved travelling. She had been ready to follow him anywhere, and she had. She could find things to be bitter and angry about, if she tried.

However, when she thought about her life and how happen she had always been, despite hardships, she was glad to have a loving man at her side (although sometimes it was an uphill battle) and decided that it was worth it.

His arms tightened around her as he pulled her close and she smiled. After all, she always knew that marrying Charles Ingalls would be an adventure to last a lifetime.


	4. Love Remembered

Love Remembered

References to These Happy Golden Years and Across the Rolling River

She sighed as she leaned back against the cushions on the window seat. Laura had just said goodbye to Almanzo as he left for his long journey where he would be gone all winter.

The look on her girl's brave face was something to see. Her daughter had never been especially open about her feelings toward the young man who just left—no doubt something she learned from her ma—but she could tell that Laura was going to be missing him quite a bit.

There was also mixed in some fear—fear of the journey that he would have to take, no doubt fear that he would forget about the girl he left in South Dakota.

In some ways, her second daughter reminded her of herself. Charles had always seen her with open regard, even if he was friends with her brothers, the time she had found him playing his fiddle on a Sunday had made a special secret between them. One that she had never shared. As far as anyone else knew, they had met the next day, when he had come to help her family bring in the wheat.

It was such a funny thing how her daughter's life reminded her of her own. On the other side, Laura was her father's daughter. She showed her happiness, her anger, her determinedness in everything she did.

As the years passed and she reveled in the comfort of a steady home, she could only be grateful of how things came to be.


End file.
